Living like a local in Helsinki

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Best Boat for Drinks in Helsinki

I have been travelling around Europe for past three weeks. So I hope you understand I’ve been active with this blog during past weeks. When travelling I once again remembered how much I enjoy finding “the local places” of the towns I am visiting. I love to visit café which is a favourite place of somebody living nearby. Or tasting pizza which is somebody’s must have each Sunday. So you all can be sure that I am very motivated sharing my best (and sometimes just everyday) moments and ideas to do in Helsinki with you. I hope you can love this town doing same things me and the other writers of this blog do!

After three weeks travelling Helsinki-Naples-Paris-Athens-Helsinki first thing I did after arriving home was going running. When running I realized how clean the air felt, how few people there are around and how small Helsinki is. I guess these things are something you notice also when visiting Helsinki. I also think those things make Helsinki quite special – we can’t compete with Athens’s acropolis or the Parisian feeling. But we really have smallish unique town with a bit of Russian flavour here in Helsinki. So small you can easily walk from place to place. Or bike around with city bikes. And if you are not up to those, you can always take tram, metro or bus. It really is so easy and fast to move from place to place here in Helsinki!

One special thing I want to share with you today is old lighthouse boat (majakkalaiva in Finnish) called Relandersgrund (sometimes just called “Rellu”). Nowadays this boat isn’t anymore sailing around – it is parked in the end of Aleksanterinkatu (near President Castle) in central Helsinki. This lighthouse boat was built 1886-1888 in Finnish town called Turku. During the WWI Russians sank Relandersgrund. After war boat war repaired and it was used as a lighthouse boat. In 1991 it was found in very bad shape (before that it had been abandoned) and it was decided to be repaired by private person. However, since in very bad shape there was a lot to do. Currently Relandersgrund looks very nice, however, profit of the café is used for repairing the boat even more. You can read more of boat’s history here, unfortunately text is in Finnish.

You can buy drinks or coffee from boat. The boat has very nice views – you can see Uspenski Cathedral (Orthodox Church), some buildings belonging to President Castle as well as sailing boats and houses of Katajanokka and Kruununhaka districts. And of course – see is there to admire. I recommend this place for afternoons as well as for evenings. You see, in Finland sun is shining almost all night along so you can admire Helsinki views even in midnight!